


Distraction

by enviropony



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-17
Updated: 2011-12-17
Packaged: 2017-10-27 11:45:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/295493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enviropony/pseuds/enviropony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin ponders the purpose of the dagger he’s been handed, and does a little magic.</p><p>SPOILERS - Missing Scene for 4x07 - The Secret Sharer</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distraction

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Not mine. Belongs to BBC and all. Just borrowing for not-for-profit reasons. As in, I did not and will not make any money here. Like, ever.
> 
> A/N: Some things were bothering me, and I tried to explain them. Spoilers for 4x03 The Wicked Day, 4x05 His Father’s Son, 4x07 The Secret Sharer.

\- - -

Even as Merlin sort-of-bows his way out of Agravaine’s presence, his mind is reaching in ten different directions. The man is clearly up to something. The evening is late, and it will take Merlin time to restore the dagger to a proper state - it is dull in blade and sheen, both. The ornamentation on the hilt also needs caring for.

What Merlin turns over and over in his head as he descends the stair to the armory is: Why now? What for? Is this thing enchanted?

Ever since Gaius had found the cursed locket around Uther’s neck, Merlin has made it a point to study ensorcelled objects. Sometimes, the magic is obvious. Other times, he has to struggle to feel it. Almost always, he has to be consciously looking for some sign of enchantment - he’d missed the spell on Arthur’s sword at the confrontation with Caerleon completely, because even though it had been powerful, it had also lain deep within the metal, and he hadn’t expected the weapon to have been tampered with.

He feels frustration over this weakness in his magical skill. It doesn’t seem like a hard thing: Gaius does it readily, with little thought. The Druids are masters of enchanted bits and bobs, both the doing and the feeling of them. Merlin thinks that for being the greatest sorcerer alive, this hole in his education is an embarrassment. He doesn’t understand why - aside from an appalling lack of time to practice of late - it’s been such a struggle for him to learn to feel magic.

There’s a small part of him that suspects it has to do with fear: he’s been hiding his magic for so long that he’s started to hide _from_ it, too. To feel other magic, he has to let his own have a loose rein, and that way can only lead, Gaius has insisted to him, to a swift and unhappy discovery.

Most of Merlin just twists his hands together, shrugs, and goes on trying.

Now he locks the armory door, sets the torch he’s brought in a sconce, and settles himself on a bench by the wall. Before he cleans the dagger, he intends to make sure that Morgana has not turned it into some sort of trap.

Merlin lets his magic creep out, cautious and slow, to feel along the ornate sheath and hilt, and startles at the immediate _snap!_ of a spell breaking. He can tell little as it dissipates in the sudden rush of his own magic, save that the enchantment was weak, and meant to bring some small, ill luck. He thinks it must have been keyed to Arthur, since neither he nor Agravaine set if off just by handling it.

But what is the point? Merlin wonders as he draws the dagger from its sheath, and feels another, similar enchantment on the blade. That, too, he break easily, and lets his magic wash, strong and bright, over the weapon, cleansing it of Morgana’s taint - it’s her magic, he has no doubt - before sheathing it again.

He lays it on the bench, ponders a moment, and picks it up again. In place of Morgana’s minor curses, he lays subtle, multi-layered charms for luck. It will take them weeks to wear off, and Merlin thinks he can always replace them if Arthur takes a particular liking to the dagger.

Merlin sharpens and oils the blade by hand, letting the repetitive movement of the whetstone settle the charms well into the metal. The hilt and sheath he treats likewise, loath to mix his rough cleaning magic with the delicate workings he’s just performed. It doesn’t always end well.

He comes to the conclusion that the dagger is a distraction - a token of Agravaine’s false affection, spelled to make Arthur’s life just a little more difficult. There’s something bigger behind it, Merlin’s sure, so he finishes hurriedly, and takes the stairs two at a time to Arthur’s chambers. He’ll leave the dagger for Arthur to find, and go check on Gaius. The way Agravaine went after him today, Merlin thinks perhaps he shouldn’t have left Gaius alone at all.

He’s right.

He’s also too late to do anything about it.

-end-


End file.
